INTRODUCTION

(Abang Jais will give this at Radiant Site A)

We will be going to Fitrah Farm, which belongs to Tn Hj Awaludin, a retired marine captain, and a certified
permaculturist who is very passionate in creating self-sustainable food abundance within relatively small spaces.

The main characteristics of a natural farm:

1) Self-sufficient.
Does not need purchase of fertilizer, pesticides, feed for animals. Everything they need can be naturally
grown at the farm itself.
For example if the farmer needs to feed chickens, he will grow paddy and azolla, and make worm
composts. In exchange, the chicken’s droppings help grow the vegetables and the paddy that the farmer
needs, while providing him with eggs and meat.
If he needs fertilizer, he will take the soil from his compost heap, or the soil from his banana trees which is
full of nutrient-rich worm castings.
If he needs a pesticide he will grow plants like ginger, to use as a pesticide.
Accordingly there is very little wastage on a natural farm. Everything is put to good and clever use. For
example wood from dead plants create a log compost, while tall grass is cut to create mulching for
vegetable beds. Natural farming practitioners do not burn grass and leaves, like you will see others do.
All this is the opposite of intensive or monoculture farming which uses a lot of store-bought fertilisers and
pesticides, and are far from being self-sufficient.

2) Productive without being labour-intensive.

Natural farms mimic the jungle, where everything is in balance.
The farmer cleverly augments the natural processes already happening on the farm, such as
decomposition where nutrients from dead animals and plants are released back into the soil,
photosynthesis where plants make food using energy from the sun, nitrification where waste material is
turned into nutrients for plants, and hundreds of other natural processes, to ensure that he gets high
productivity, with minimal human intervention. This is why when you walk in a natural farm, it will seem
overgrown instead of tidy, but this jungle-look is because all the processes in the jungle is taking place on
the farm.
The farmer’s helpers are microbes and worms in the ground, the sun, bees and other flying insects, ducks
and chickens and so on. So even one farmer and one helper can already manage a productive 2 acre farm
that can fully feed their families, with plenty of extra produce to sell.

3) Biodiversity.
 The natural farm will have a lot of different plants growing in it, both in the horizontal as well as the
vertical spaces, and a lot of different animals living in it.
This biodiversity helps to ensure multiple symbiotic processes can take place at the same time, for
example between ducks, fish and paddy, or between chicken, fruit trees and vegetables.
It also ensures that a single pest, infection or predator cannot harm all the produce of the farm, because
what is harmful to one plant or animal, may not be harmful to others. In monoculture, for example a chilli
plantation which produces only chilli, a single fungus can kill off all the crops, and in an intensive chicken
farm a single virus can kill off all the livestock. This is why such monoculture farm use so much antibiotics,
pesticides, fungicides and other harmful substances.

So when we go to Fitrah Farm, be sure to notice these three characteristics: Self-sufficiency. The jungle-look which
shows high productivity without being labour intensive. And Biodiversity.
STATION 1: (Najwa, 20 minutes)

1. Vegetable planting (Tomato, asparagus and cabbage)

This is a raised vegetable bed. Raised beds are great for growing vegetables because they keep away
weeds and pests from your vegetables, prevent soil compaction and provide good drainage.

This vegetable bed is a good example of the diversity which is characteristic of natural farms. For example
if there is a pest which affects the asparagus, it will find it hard to spread, because there are other plants
in-between.

(Activity: Identify the plants on this bed together with the kids)

The important things for planting vegetables is make sure the soil has enough air and water, the area
receives enough sunlight and also the temperature.
To ensure the plant receives enough air and water, it is essential to ensure that the soil of the vegetable
bed is home to a thriving population of worms. Worms are so important to a garden that they are called
“nature’s first gardeners”.

Why are worms so important?

- As earthworms move through the soil of a garden, they make tunnels. Just like plowing, these tunnels
allow air and water to get to the roots of plants. Without access to air and water, plants would not grow
well.
- As earthworms live their lives in the soil, they eat organic matter, such as dead leaves, grass clippings and
even dirt. After they digest their unique meal, earthworms produce excrement that helps enrich the soil
further. Their waste — called "worm castings" when found on top of soil, helps gardens grow because it's
rich in phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen and magnesium. These are all important nutrients that help garden
plants grow and stay healthy.

(Activity: Show and touch worm castings in a Tupperware)

Gardeners who want to increase the number of earthworms in their garden soil can do so by adding more
organic matter to their garden. This practice is called mulching. Cover the ground with cut grass, leaves
and shrubs by about 5 to 6 inches, all the plants.
The mulching will sustain a cooler soil temperature, and keep the soil moist, and this will draw more
earthworms to the soil. The organic material of the mulch also provides the worms with food. In turn, the
earthworms will enrich the soil with their tunnels and castings, making for a very fertile vegetable bed!
2. Fish pond

A good, sustainable farm will always have a fishpond, because it uses up waste from the kitchen, for
example uneaten rice, old vegetables, while providing the farmer with fish. The mud layer lying at the
bottom of the pond is extremely fertile, and can be used as fertilizer for plants.

Ideally, after grown fish are harvested, the pond should be drained, and a suitable crop grown on its
muddy bottom, such as paddy. Because no further work is needed to prepare the pond bed for planting,
this method is called till-less paddy planting.

The fish in this pond are mainly grass carp, a vegetarian fish. They are fed plants, and azolla. The azolla is
the small purple free-floating plants which you see in that raft. It is actually a fern.

Azolla is a superfood for farm animals and fish, because of its high protein content. It contains 25 - 35
percent protein, 10 - 15 percent minerals and 7 - 10 percent of amino acids, bio-active substances and bio-
polymers. This makes it a highly nutritious feed for animals, and also one which is easy for them to digest.

Azolla is very easy and economical to grow, and it grows very fast, doubling in size every 48 hours. The
main reason it can grow so fast and so easily is that azolla hosts a symbiotic blue green algae called
Anabaena azollae, which is responsible for the fixation and assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen in
nitrates, which are essential nutrients for plants.

These features make azolla an ideal, abundant and sustainable food source on farms, and is becoming
increasingly used on farms around the world.

(Activity: Scoop out the azolla and feed the fish. Equipment: long net, long pole.)

In terms of plants, the farmer will let the grass and other shrubs grow tall around the farm, because these
are food for the fish.

(Activity: Cut long grass, weeds from around the farm and throw into the pond: Equipment: a few pairs
of scissors. Be careful not to pull out vegetables and seedling!)
STATION 2: (Hazwan, 20 minutes)

3) Duck Pond

These ducks are released by Tuan Haji around the pond to find food for themselves.
Ducks are important to the farm because:
- They eat slugs, snails and other pests which are harmful to vegetables and paddy.
- They dig-around in the soil and mud and improve the air content in the soil.
- They provide the farmer with eggs and meat.
- Their dung fertilizes the soil and the pond.

(Activity: Try and get Samiyyah or Suleiman to go into the area to retrieve duck eggs)

Every 3 months, the fish in this pond is harvested, and the pond will be planted with paddy. The paddy will
grow well because the soil at the bottom of this pond will have a lot of nutrients from duck and fish
excrement.

The soil will also be moist and will not require tilling, which is why paddy grown in this form is called till-
less paddy.

While the paddy is growing, the ducks will continue to roam amongst them to eat the pests, provide air to
the soil and fertilize the soil with their droppings.

When the paddy is harvested 3 months later, the stalks and roots of the paddy will be left in the ground,
and the field will be flooded again into a fishpond. The fish will enjoy the left over green materials at the
bottom of the pond as their food. The duck and the fish will naturally re-fertilize the pond and the cycle of
fishpond and paddy field will repeat every 3 months.

En Jais told you earlier about the main features of a natural farm, and this example I have given you, is a
great example of how a natural farm is productive by using helpers provided by nature, in this case, the
duck!

4) Jungle Garden (The chicken hut and the green area next to it)

This area that you see is called the jungle garden, and it is like a farm within a farm. The natural interaction
between chicken, plants and worm in this area creates a productive and fertile growing area for plants,
and a food-rich area for healthy chickens to grow.

First, the farmer ensures that the jungle garden is planted with fruit trees, like papaya, chempedak. He
allows a rick green carpet of shrubs to grow on the ground. He creates heaps of compost from dead plants
like in these 3 compartments. This area is now great for chickens, because there will be a big population
of worms for the chickens to eat, green materials for them to eat, and also the occasional fruit which will
ripen and fall for them to enjoy.
 During the day, the chickens will roam freely in this area. Their scratching motion will areate the soil while
their droppings will fertilize it, making the jungle garden a fertile place for fruits and vegetables to be
grown.

At night, the chicken will return to their chicken coop to lay eggs for the farmer.

For the healthiest chickens, they should eat about 1/3 critters like worms and insects, 1/3 green material
like leaves, azolla and fruits, and 1/3 grains like paddy, which will come from the paddy fields in the farm.

This example of the Jungle Garden is a great example of the self-sufficiency of a natural farm once it is
properly planned out. The chicken has everything it needs naturally, the plants get what they need, and
the farmer enjoys healthy free range eggs and chicken meat!

5) Mulching around the lemon tree

At the vegetable bed station, you will learn in more detail about mulching from K Najwa. Mulching is
important not just for vegetables but also for trees.

(Activity: Take mulch of old bamboo and old leaves and grass, and put it around the lemon tree.
Bamboo first than overlay with the grass/leaves. Equipment: Rubber gloves)

This mulching around the tree will:

- sustain a cool soil temperature for worms and microbes which help provide air and nutrients for plant
growth.
- avoid weeds and grass from growing up around the tree.
- sustains moisture in the soil until the next rain, which means less watering by the farmer.
- adds carbon and nitrogen to the soil as the mulch naturally decomposes.
STATION 3: (Jais, 20 minutes)

6) Azolla-growing ponds.

At the fishpond, Najwa will tell you about the characteristics of this fast-growing and nutritious fern called
azolla, and why azolla is important as a sustainable food source for farm animals and fish.
Here you see azolla bring grown around and near to the paddy. How is azolla important to plants, and not
just to animals? In 3 ways:
1) Plants need nitrates and nitrites as food to grow. The nitrogen in the air is an important source of
nitrates and nitrites, but plants cannot take these directly from the air. For this, they need certain
bacteria and blue-green algae, which can take nitrogen molecules from the air, and fix it into nitrates
and nitrites which can be absorbed by plants. The root of the azolla plant hosts blue-green algae in a
symbiotic relationship, which means that it not only gets nitrates and nitrites for it’s own past growth,
but the plants which live near it, like this paddy, also benefits.
2) Azolla is rich in protein, which means that it can be spread across the paddy field as a nutritious
biofertiliser for the paddy plants.
3) When azolla is growing in the water, it controls the algae content in the water and prevents it from
growing too fast. Algae blooms are harmful to plants and animals in the water because the algae sucks
up available oxygen. Incidentally, a mat of azolla over water also prevents mosquito larvae from
thriving, which is why some call this plant the mosquito fern!
 (Activity: Touch and examine azolla)

7) Paddy fields

The paddy fields here have been planned in a very clever way.

At the top of this rise are duck pens. The water from the duckpens are rich in natural fertiliser, and are
washed by the rain into the paddy fields below, to help the paddy to grow.

While the paddy is growing, the ducks are allowed to roam freely amongst it, to eat pests and slugs and
snails, to areate the soil through their digging motions as they search for worms, and to continue to
fertilize the ground with their droppings.

Paddy is probably our most important food crop, yet we important almost 40% of our rice from
neighbouring countries. Hj Awaludin firmly believes that spare ground in a kampong area like Janda Baik,
should be planted with paddy, to improve our feed security and to be better prepared in times of
emergency

Paddy planting in large fields may seem like a complicated process which requires tractors, large scale
drainage, fertilisers, pesticides and so on. But actually paddy is easy to grow, and with the right practices,
you can have a high yielding paddy field in just a small area like this. After all, it only takes one grain of rice
to produce a bushy plant like this, which produces hundreds and thousands of new grains!

Some of the practices which Hj Awaludin uses include:

i) Azolla for biofertilisers

ii) Ducks for fertilisers and pest control
iii) Leaving the stalks of harvested paddy on the ground as a cover, so that the soil remains cool and
moist, and nutrients from the decomposing stalks can be released back into the ground for new
growth.
iv) Inter-lacing paddy planting with fish breeding to naturally boost the nutrient content of the soil
v) Choosing high-yielding varieties of paddy, which produce a lot of tillers and grains.

(Activity: Paddy planting. Make mudballs and insert one paddy grain into it. Place at intervals in the
paddy fields).
STATION 4: (Jais, 40 minutes)

8) Chicken Tractor

This chicken coop is called a chicken tractor because it performs the tilling function which tractors are
typically used for.

Here are the steps of how this tractor works:

i. Put the hut on the ground, preferably in an area with a lot of ground cover plants.
ii. Put the chicken inside. 1 cock and 10 hens is a good arrangement.
iii. The chicken will scratch and loosen the soil as they find their food. At the same time their
excrement will fertilize the soil. During this time, the chicken should be fed with grains and azolla
which are grown in the farm. They will produce eggs daily for the farmer, as well as new chicks.
iv. After 3 months, remove the chickens and move the hut to another area.
v. The area where the hut once stood is now a fertile, and ready-tilled plot of land, ready to be used
for planting!
vi. After the vegetables in this area are harvested, leave the roots and stalks, and move the chicken
tractor back onto the area to continue the cycle. The ground you moved the hut from can now be
used for vegetable planting, and the cycle continues.

(Activity: Move the chicken tractor, and plant vegetable seedlings. Process:

1. Place the mulching on the ground. Make sure the mulching covers all the soil to make sure the
nutrients are not leach by sunlight and rain.
2. Make a hole in the mulching around 35cm distance apart, and place 1 bowl of fertile soil mixture
(measure with bamboo stick). The soil mixture should comprise:
 50% banana plant soil because it has a lot of nutrients from worm castings
 30% compost
 20% sand.
3. Make a small hole on the mound to put the plant inside. That’s it!)